North Korea has offered to return to talks on nuclear disarmament, in a move
designed to keep their Chinese allies happy.

Choe Ryong Ha, an envoy from North Korea, is currently in Beijing to meet with Communist party officials.

Chinese state media announced on Friday that the Pyongyang was willing to discuss the issue.

It quoted Mr Choe as saying North Korea "is willing to accept the suggestion of the Chinese side and launch dialogue with all relevant parties."

Mr Choe also reportedly praised China's work on behalf of peace and stability, and its "great efforts to return (Korean) peninsular issues to the channel of dialogue and negotiation," China Central Television reported.

Mr Choe's mission is the first high-level, face-to-face contacts between the two governments in six months. The regional allies usually meet more frequently than that, and in the interim Pyongyang has conducted rocket launches and nuclear tests and put out angry statements.

The moves angered Beijing, which felt its interests in regional stability were not being heeded. It showed its displeasure by joining with the US to back UN sanctions and cut off dealings with North Korea's Foreign Trade Bank.

Academics specialising in North Korea said Chinese leaders would unlikely have accepted Mr Choe's visit without a promise from Pyongyang that it was prepared to return to diplomacy as Beijing has sought.

"The relationship is rocky, so they will try to mend the relationship," said Cui Yingjiu, a retired professor of Korean at Peking University.

"Second, they also want to improve relations with the US and need China to be their intermediary."

Mr Choe is expected to hold talks with Xi Jinping, the Chinese president. His comments Thursday will likely be seen by Beijing as setting the correct atmosphere of deference for such a meeting.

Awaiting Mr Xi's return, Mr Choe spent part of Thursday touring an industrial park in southern Beijing, accompanied by a Communist Party functionary. The Chinese government has in the past used such tours to try to persuade North Korea to adopt China's model of economic reform accompanied by rigid one-party rule.